Apparatus for cleaning potatoes



oct. 27. 1942. |'q A HARWOQD 2,300,046

4 APPARATUS FOR CLEANING POTATOES Filed Jan. 13, 1940 2 sheets-sheet 1 l k2 kl f 1 n [|22 (Il b5 l k\m\5 x 1 mm \x' x STS; xxx

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APPARATUS FOR CLEANING POTATOES r Filed Jan. l5, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 iFig 2.

Inventor v furry fr'. arwoocl.

A ltorney Patented Oct. 27, 1942 orifice lAPPARATUS Foa CLEANING Po'rA'roEs Harry Andrew George Harwood, Liverpool, EnglandA Application January 13, 1940, Serial No. 313,772 vIn Great Britain January 24,1939

iclaim. (ci. 14s-106) This invention relates to apparatus for clean- Y ing potatoes, and aims to provide anew or improved simple and inexpensive portable apparatus for this purpose which, whilst being adapted to be readily operated and used by `unskilled or semi-skilled persons, is primarily designed to substantially reduce the time taken to extract eyes from potatoes-as compared with the use of usual hand operated tools-and also to substantially reduce the waste of the potatoes caused in the removal of the eyes by present methods.

Portable apparatus for cleaning potatoes, according t0 my invention, comprises a container within Aand upon which all instrumentalities necessary to the performance of the function are mounted, said instrumentalities consisting of a rotatable drill or tool adapted to remove the eyes from potatoes, a rotatable scraper device adapted to remove the skin from a part or parts of the potatoes not previously removed in the washing of same, a rotatable cutter device whereby unripe or bad parts of the potatoes may be readily cut away, and a common source of power, such 4as a small electric motor to which the drill, scraper and cutter device are coupled for simultaneous operation, said drill, scraper and cutter device being operable through and accessible at a common side of the container whereat the latter is supplied with guides adjacent to the drill and cutter for aiding in the limitation of their penetration into the substance of the potato.

I will further describe my invention with the aid of the accompanying sheets of explanatory drawings which illustrate, by way of example only, one mode of carrying the invention into effect.

In said drawings:

Fig. l is a front view of the apparatus with casing in section,

Fig. 2 a corresponding side View also with casing in section,

Fig. 3 a plan of Fig. 1 but with top lid or cover raised, and

Fig. 4 a perspective view of the apparatus but drawn to 4a reduced scale as compared with the preceding views.

In the several views like characters of reference denote like or equivalent parts wherever they occur.

Referring to the drawings, a designates a small electric motor to the shaft or spindle b whereof is fitted a boss part c1 of a pulley c provided with double V grooves. By means of suitable belt is arranged to drive pulley wheels e, e1 mounted in respective brackets f, ,f1 one on' each side of motor a. To the spindles y, g1 `which rotate with side pulleys e, e1 are appropriately secured rotatable tools, such as the `drills h, h1, drill h being smaller in diameter than drill h1; whilst to the central pulley c there is iitted a scraper device which, in this example, is shown in the form of ashaft 7 provided with a pear-shaped member Vor extremity. i1 having its face serrated or otherwise roughened, shaft :i being secured within the other boss part c2 of pulley c.

The motor a carrying the scraper device y', :il and the brackets f, f1 carrying the drills h, h1 are mounted in proximity with each other upon the common floor of and within a wooden boxlike casing 7c to form a unitary structure, the casing 1c being provided with a displaceable lid or cover k1 hinged at k2 and releasable catches such as k3, k3.

The front wall of casing k is provided with slots h4 wherethrough the operative ends of the rotatable members h, h1, :i1 extend. A further slot R5 is provided in a side of the casing for passage of the electricity supply cable a1 leading from the motor for connection withthe supply source. Said front Wall is also provided with spaced guard projections or abutments l, l1, l2 designed to shield the rotating exposed parts of the drills and thus protect the hand of the operator in the use of the apparatus as hereinafter described. The projections Z1, Z2 at each side of the eye-extracting drill h1 also prevent undue penetration of the drill into a potato.

- Upon the motor being set in motion, the centre scraper device y', i1 and the two outer drills h, h1 rotate simultaneously and in removing the eyes from a potato, the latter is held in the hand of the operator and applied to the rotating end of the larger eye-extracting drill h1 of the appara-- tus, whereupon the eye is removed, the thread of the drill h1 facilitating the removal of the waste portion of the potato.

Owing to the shape of some potatoes, the skin of a part or parts of same is frequently not thoroughly removed or cleansed after washing, such part or parts usually occurring in concavities or recesses in the potato. These part or parts, however, may be readily removed by applying the potato to the serrated or otherwise roughened pear-shaped end il of the rotating scraper device, j, 7".

If a potato has a part unripe or otherwise bad,

or like transmissions, such as d, d1, said pulley c 55 this may be readily remOVed by Pressing the P0 tato downwardly upon the top of the ne drill h, the part of the potato to be removed being situated on the side of drill h adjacent to the guard projection Z which may also serve as a stop for contact with the part of the potato being cut away, the screw-threading of the drill functioning to cut the potato similarly las if the potato were pressed onto the edge of a knife.

With the arrangement and disposition of the drills h, h1 and scraper device y, 7'1 before described, a potato may be readily moved by an operator from the eye-extracting drill h1 to the cutter drill h or scraper device il whichever is required.

It will be obvious that Various alterations or modifications may be made to the apparatus described with reference to the drawings without departure from the scope of this invention as dened by the claim. For instance, the scraper device 7', gil, eye-extracting drill h1 and cutter drill h may be interchanged with their anchoragesv to respec'tivepulleysy whilst the shaft or spindles of said devices may have screw-threaded or any other suitable connection to said pulleys. Further, although it is preferred to arrange the tools h, h1 and 7', :il in combination vas shown, the eye-remover h1 may be combined with the rotatable scraper device j, jl or with the rotatable cutter device h. In either of these examples, however, both rotatable members will be driven from a common source of power, such as the motor a.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

An apparatus for peeling potatoes comprising a rectangular container open at the top and provided with a hinged closure member for closing said open top, said container being provided with a front wall having a plurality of vertically extending slots formed therein and each being open at its upper end, said closure member when closing said top of the container also covers the upper open ends of said slots, a plurality of spaced parallel motor driven shafts mounted within said container and a motor for driving the same, a potato cutting tool arranged eX- teriorly of said front wall and having means eX- tending through one of the slots of said front wall, an operative connection between said means and oneof the motor driven shafts within the container, said operative connection providing for disconnection and removal of said tool through the open top of the slot when the closure is hinged to open position and an elongated guide xedly secured to the outer face of the front wall of the container and arranged adjacent said cutting tool to steady the potato and the hand of the operator holding the potato while he subjects the same to the operation of the cutting tool.

HARRY ANDREW GEORGE HARWOOD. 

